App could take the risk of out buying clothes online

The Verisize app is designed to determine what size of clothing a person takes, without requiring them to take a series of measurements

Buying clothes online is always a bit of a crapshoot. You might know that a Large shirt from one designer fits you, but that doesn’t mean that a Large from another designer will also. That’s why a group of PhD students from Spain’s Universitat Autònoma de Bacelona (UAB) created the Verisize app – it’s intended to lessen buyers’ chances of ending up with clothes that don’t fit.

Ordinarily, clothing websites will provide a sizing chart, which requires buyers to obtain measurements of various parts of their body. It’s hard to say how often people bother to get those measurements, although according to the team at UAB, many people don’t want to take the several minutes required to do so. By contrast, Verisize reportedly only takes a few seconds to use.

After indicating their gender and the clothing brand that they’re looking at, users are presented with a screen where they input their height, weight and age. They are then asked to select their body shape from six provided examples. This is where things could get tricky, as they might misjudge what their shape is, or perhaps might even subconsciously choose the shape that they’d like to have. In any case, based on that information, the app then tells them what size of garment they should get – in that brand.

Verisize was created by studying the anthropomorphic characteristics of over 50,000 people of differing body shapes. UAB hopes that it will not only make things easier for consumers, but that it will also help online retailers avoid the costs and complications involved in processing returned items. Prices for businesses using it range from US$99 to $549 per month, depending on the plan chosen.